IdleBeats

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Last night we went over to Idle Beats studio and caught up with the designer of this month’s poster, artist/ex-punk band member/part time model (check the new The Thing catalogue) – Gregor Koerting, to ask him a few questions about where he’s from and what he’s been up to.

Sub-Culture: First of all can you introduce yourself a bit. Where are you from and how did you get into art?

Gregor Koerting: So yeah, im from Dresden in Germany. I’ve been doing this illustration thing now for over a decade now. I started as a teenager doing some graffiti stuff and then I went on to do some simple gig posters for local punk rock bands, covers, skate board designs and later on also some mural art. Over the years I didn’t really leave my hometown, but 3 years ago me and wife decided to move to Shanghai so I started doing illustrations here and getting to know the subculture scene.

GK: Haha well it was actually quite funny. My wife found an advertisement in Time Out. At this time I was looking for an opportunity to do silk screen printing here in Shanghai. Id done it before in Dresden before I came. So yeah, she had found this advertisement saying ‘silkscreen workshop – print your own posters and t-shirts’ and it sounded perfect so I put some images on a usb stick and went down. It was quite a big event with maybe 50 or more people…

SC: Was that the Split Works event?

GK: No actually it was a cooperation between Nini and NeoCha Edge in an old bassment close to here. It was actually a big event with 3 or 4 silkscreen tables with ready made screens and people could try to print by themselves. In advance I emailed Nini to say its really cool and I’d like to try something, and when I went down Sean (NeoCha) introduced me to Nini and I said ‘Yeah I’d like to try and print my own image’ and handed over my USB and Nini was like ‘What is this guy?’ hahaha. So anyway, after this we kept in touch and she told me that the next week she had to print the Shackleton poster (the first Sub-Culture collaberation with Idle Beats) and soI offered to help her with this. I then began to help out more and more and gradually ended up here, hahaha

GK: Haha actually I cannot tell really. Spectery is just a term really, its not a business or company or anything, its just a website with my portfolio…

SC: So its just yourself?

GK: Actually its myself and my brother. He’s in Germany and studying painting and art in Dresden so we work on this together and put our artwork on this website and that’s all. Im still thinking what to do with this really.

August 2011 Sub-Culture poster by Gregor Koerting

SC: Ok, so can you tell us a little bit about this month’s poster? Whats it about? Where did the inspiration come from?

GK: I’ve had a lot of inspiration from science fiction and horror the last couple of years, from writers like H.P. Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood. Im really into this space and horror theme. But most of the gig posters I do are inspired by the music and since I’m really into this Witch House thing the last few months this poster was influenced a lot by this.

Halo by Gregor Koerting

SC: Ok, so finally, what do you have planned after this poster? What projects do you have coming up?

GK: Besides the gig posters we are doing more and more art prints. Our latest one is this one (see above pic). We are also preparing for a gig poster festival in Germany where we have our own booth, so we are getting a lot of work ready for that. We have a few other projects in mind, such as silk screened books, art books, but this is really a long term project.

As always, Gregor and Nini will be down at The Shelter at the Idle Beats booth at this Saturdays Sub-Culture with a whole range of great, affordable artwork including this months poster and the new (and selling fast) Sub-Culture T-Shirt, both designed by Gregor. See you there!!

This month’s Sub-Culture poster (above) was desgined by Manila’s JP Cuison. We’ve had so many people ask us about this design (and so many posters stolen from The Shelter) that we thought we should start giving a bit more information on our guest artist each month, and so from this month onwards we will be doing short interviews and finding out a little more about their background, styles and influences.

Naked Lights poster by JP Cuison

Sub-Culture: Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you been an artist? How did it start?

JP Cuison: I’m a Fine Arts graduate from UP Diliman, currently a senior art director in an advertising agency. I’ve been an artist for as long as I could remember. I think it started with my love for comics when I was a kid.. I’ve always been fascinated by the art I see there.

Sub-Culture: Your artwork has a distinct style to it. How did this come about? Was it a long process? Is it still evolving?

JP Cuison: I think, again, it came from my love for comics. Yeah, you can say it’s a long process just because it has been part of with me for the longest time. I guess it is still evolving because I like to sometimes change it up a little so that I don’t become a one note artist…

Sub-Culture: You have recently released your first comic book. Can you tell us a bit about it?

JP Cuison: It’s a homage to underground comix. I’ve always wanted to publish a comic book but the process of looking for a publisher and actually having my work published ‘officially’ is too long for me. So I just decided to make one on my own. It’s definitely much much faster that way.

Halloween poster by JP Cuison

Sub-Culture: Who’s your favourite comic book character? Why?

JP Cuison: Ironman/Tony Stark. So flashy, so real and he is rich 🙂

Sub-Culture: You design a lot of event posters. What goes on with your creative process? How do you start? Does the artist/genre of music you are making the poster for influence the design or do you just make what you feel like?

JP Cuison: I start with the event’s title, that serves as my brief. Usually my clients allow me to be crazy and let me do my own thing.. That’s what I like about my gig posters. I can actually say they’re all 100% me. I think that’s also why people come to me for gig posters– I guess they like the craziness of my work. (I hope.. :-))

Sub-Culture: Asterix and Addison Groove, whats the link?

JP Cuison: Actually it’s a war between Asterix and Thor. They’re fighting for the winged helmet. Well it’s a crazy battle and I feel Addison’s music could be the perfect ‘scoring’ for that war..

B-Side Anniversary poster by JP Cuison

Sub-Culture: If you had a super power, what would it be?

JP Cuison: Teleportation, I want to visit different countries anytime I want to…. and the best part is… it’s free 🙂

Sub-Culture: How is the comic book/art scene in Manila? Are there any other artists we should look out for?

JP Cuison: The indie comic scene here in Manila is very very active. The Urban art scene here is crazy. So many art galleries are opening and I think it’s a good sign that art is alive in Manila. It’s no New York (art scene wise), but I feel if we just give it some time and attention, we can get there. Manila is still a ‘baby’..

Sub-Culture: What are your 3 favourite movies?

JP Cuison: K-PAX, Ironman and X-men movies hehe 🙂

To find out more about JP, and to see more of his great artwork, check his blog here, and also his comic book blog here. As usual, Idle Beats have done some beautiful silk-screened prints of this month’s poster and they will be available to purchase at the event this Saturday @ Shelter!